Precursor
by Canadino
Summary: Some things you can't just explain; it's better if you actually show it. But sometimes that's not the best way to go about it...unless... Brinker/Leper


**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: --

Precursor

You didn't have to be particularly smart to know things. You just had to be observant. For example, Brinker knew it wasn't Brownie knocking at the dorm room door, because Perkins never knocked; he never actually ventured toward their room unless the door was open, and he had closed it to study. He knew it wasn't Finny, because Finny wouldn't even knock; he'd just barge in as if he owned the place. He knew it wasn't Gene because Forrester never came over these parts. He didn't know who else would come pay a visit, so he didn't look up from his Latin notes as he said, "Make it quick, Lepellier."

The door opened slightly and Leper's face poked into the crack. "How did…" But whatever was on the boy's mind was too important and the sentence wasn't finished as he slipped into the room. Lepellier was antsy, something the air headed boy never was, so Brinker closed his notebook and turned in the chair to face him. "I didn't know who else to go to for this…I didn't want to go to a professor…but…you're smart, aren't you, Brinker?"

"I am." Normally, he would have gone for the modest card, to make himself look more mature, but this was Leper he was dealing with; no use impressing him at all.

"Then…I saw…" His face was getting red. Brinker wasn't sure if he liked the way this was going; but then again, Leper was no pervert and probably considered anything even remotely sexual enough to go into flustered babblings. Honestly! He was the one of the oldest students and he wasn't even interested in any sort of conquests involving women (technically he shouldn't be either; the war was the more important topic). He was going off on a tangent. Leper hadn't even said anything yet.

"I'm not supposed to tell…but…" Leper glanced up at him, a flash of blue eyes before looking down again, trying to cover his flushed face with his hair. "I saw Finny and Gene…"

"What?" It wasn't that he was interested in whatever Finny and Gene were up to; on the contrary, Finny was the campus idiot and Gene was uninteresting. Something that was taking Leper this long to get out must be worth something…unless it was that they were picking flowers and somehow this disagreed with Leper?

He had to stay on topic.

"I saw…they were…doing_ it_." Leper gulped and whispered the last part, like it was a horrible secret. Brinker blinked, momentarily knocked off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"_It_. Like…sex." With the word, Leper let out a sigh of relief, like it had been a taxing feat to say. Brinker didn't know what to say. It was something he could see and yet couldn't see the two of them doing.

"Maybe it wasn't what you thought," he said finally as Leper squirmed in front of them. Again, the fact that Leper was older than him boggled him some. Wasn't this knowledge supposed to come with age? Maybe a couple months difference wasn't as great as he thought.

"It was," Leper insisted, frantically looking as if he wanted to conjure some proof out of thin air; a picture perhaps, or get a recording of it. Brinker was glad this was not possible (to see two individuals he didn't hold at very high regard at an even more degrading situation was not good).

"Hmm." Brinker leaned back, studying Leper carefully. "Maybe if you showed me what they were doing, I could have some more idea about what this is about."

Brinker had only meant that he could tell it, maybe with some hand motions (actually, scratch that), but Leper gave him a wide, rabbit-eyed look before his hands flew to his sweater and he started taking his clothes off. This was…unexpected, to say the least. He was thankful the door was still closed. Leper was getting more and more flustered, fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, before turned to Brinker. "Finny was naked too," he said, in means of explanation.

Now if Finny and Gene were indeed a pair, Brinker thought, he would consider Finny the one to wear the pants in the relationship. And for Leper to make that correlation…then again, he wouldn't want it the other way around. He found himself sliding his tie off (for what? To humor Leper?) and had slipped his shirt off when he quickly reached out as Leper's hands ghosted the waist of his boxers. "That's perfectly fine; I know what sort of undress you mean."

What a scene; two boys stripping in a dorm room at Devon. It had a kind of ring to it. Brinker resisted the urge to jot it down. While he felt perfectly fine to be standing in underwear in his own room, it was rather amusing to watch Leper. "So what happened next?" he asked, making note to sound bored.

"W-well…" Leper looked wary of proceeding but finally walked slowly toward the closest of the two beds in the room. "They were…lying down, of course…"

This was actually quite funny. Brinker didn't think of himself as a very comic kind of person, but even he had to resist a laugh. It was a crazy situation to be in. Leper had crawled into the covers and had expressed the detail of the scene he had stumbled upon. He had played the game this far along; was he willing to "get on top of me [Leper understood] and throw the blankets on top"?

Not only was he a very funny person, but he played along with anything, it seemed.

"So," Brinker said shortly, the air under the blankets heating up to smell of an unfamiliar scent; a mix of woods and soap. "This is how you found them?"

Leper was trembling. It was actually sort of adorable, if he wasn't doing this entirely on a scientific basis. Hands-on was the best way to show something. He had taken extra caution not to actually touch Leper in any way, but it was a difficult task, as the bed was rather small and the sheets provided little cover. "Well, yes…I mean, they were…actually…is this actually necessary?"

Now was not the time to ask that question, Brinker scolded internally. It was far too late for that.

"I mean, I didn't actually see anything…this is all my assumption…it's an educated guess…"

It was indeed too late. He was getting interested.

"It's not quite enough," Brinker decided aloud. "This could mean a lot of things. Not what you mean, specifically." He paused for effect, watching Leper's light eyes stare at him. "Of course, you weren't physically there…but if you were, what do you suppose they were doing?"

"Uh…" Leper glanced at a spot over his shoulder for a moment before blinking. "This, I guess." He snaked a hand around Brinker's neck and pulled him down so their lips met. Lepellier never failed to amuse him. In between collecting bugs and cultivating pond scum in test tubes, there was this. What a strange boy. And how amusing that he was trying to use his tongue – not that he, Brinker, was very educated in that area, but he prided himself that at least he kissed a girl before. Silly boy. The smell of skin was stronger and Brinker swept a hand up Leper's bare side, earning him a startled squeak.

"Well," Brinker said triumphantly as they broke away for a breath, Leper's eyes dazzling with anticipation with his arms around his neck, "if this is what you saw, then yes, they _were_ probably having at it. Ten points, Lepellier." And because this experiment wasn't quite over yet, he resumed contact. After all, a scientific experiment isn't reliable at all until it's been repeated.

End

Note: For theblackmisrules on DA; a sequel of sorts to her ASP fanfiction. And there goes studying for AP English.


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